A Guide to Tokyo’s Retro Gaming Bars

Essential knowledge for people who like playing classic games and paying too much for drinks.

By: Jeremy Parish
September 21, 2011

One of the more interesting trends in recent years is the rash of retro game-themed bars that have cropped up around Tokyo. These hangouts have about as much in common with a Dave & Buster’s as a motorcycle does to a German tank: Rather than being the brightly lit barcades that have tried and failed to make inroads in America, Japan’s game bars are simply modest watering holes that have begun decorating themselves with kitchsy Famicom-era knick-knacks and memorabilia and offering customers the opportunity to while their time away by dabbling in old (and occasionally new) games.

It’s a pretty fun idea, and one that’s intrinsically Japanese in nature. More specifically, these bars are very much a natural evolution of Tokyo’s social politics. The idea of a bar where patrons can play video games makes perfect sense in a country where Nintendo’s 8-bit Famicom is a potent focus of nostalgia for a time when Japan’s economy was a booming powerhouse; rather than entertaining guests with karaoke or sports television, retro game bars instead let them kill time with fondly remembered classics both good and bad, from Super Mario Bros. to Spelunker. And in a city where social drinking is practically mandatory and last call is at 5 a.m. (because the trains shut down at midnight and don’t open again until dawn), people often find themselves killing an evening in a bar after missing the last train. What better way to kill time than by slugging it out with Ghosts ‘N Goblins‘ diabolical red arremer or NInja Gaiden‘s hateful birds until the sun comes up?